Wow, nine days without any posts. I hope this is because everyone is outside enjoying the warmer weather.

Since spring is here and many of us teachers have vacations coming up (Easter, Majowka), what are your favorite places to travel for a reasonably priced holiday weekend?

Criteria:

-The trip must realistically cost a maximum of 800 zloty for a weekend (all inclusive).

- Going to some backwater village to visit your in-laws doesn't count, even if your wife has brainwashed you into thinking your love every minute there and they have the best home-made ice cream in the world.

So I would like to suggest hot springs around the border of Slovakia/Poland, or trying to find a cheap return ferry ticket to Ystad or Malmo in Sweden. You will of course want to take ample supplies of kielbasa with you to avoid purchasing anything in Sweden. You could also drive to Germany, to remind yourself of what roads are supposed to be like.

Forget Berlin for a weekend...I was there 4 weeks ago. A cheap but nice hotel ie Motel 1 is 60-80 Euros a night. Train from Poznan to Berlin about 150Zl each way. That's 650Zl if you stay 1 night. May as well stay at home mate.

I think the fact that the Polish forums have become dead is a sad refelection on the typical ESL instructor's life in the country.

Not much changes in Poland day to day, and the lack of dynamics and excitement amongst general society is commonplace.

I mean I loved it there, but the fact that I didn't seem to be advancing socially or professionally factored in my decision to leave.It's a good place to spin your wheels while life goes on.

I think you'd need a 1000zl bill minimum to weekend happily somewhere in the country. If you live in the south you've got the tatras and in the north the baltic sea in season. You wouldn't want to spend all day traveling somewhere for a weekend jaunt, so location and proximity are vital to any travel plans.

You could do the death camp-salt mine trip ie Oswiecem, Wieliczka and stay in a hostel.

I'm with Jack on this one although I think life gets pretty routine wherever you are. I just got sick of the partying and fakeness of it all. It was/is ironic that after years of living there the only people I stay in touch with regularly are my expat mates and the odd beauty . Poles bring can you down with their dour outlook on life. As for the women? I don't think I've met a less generous lot over the 17 years I've been going there.

You could do the death camp-salt mine trip ie Oswiecem, Wieliczka and stay in a hostel.

I'm with Jack on this one although I think life gets pretty routine wherever you are. I just got sick of the partying and fakeness of it all. It was/is ironic that after years of living there the only people I stay in touch with regularly are my expat mates and the odd beauty . Poles bring can you down with their dour outlook on life. As for the women? I don't think I've met a less generous lot over the 17 years I've been going there.

Yes Sharter,the salt mines are amazing.I think it's 40-50zl for admission if I remember correctly? Book in advance though as it gets pretty busy during holidays.

Bieszczady is a cool area, but it's so isolated and hard to get to. I remember driving there back during winter break of 2005 for some skiing and downtime,but it took all day to get there with the terrible country roads and traffic.

The Karpacz table mountains are fun for hiking and relaxing but generally crowded so choose wisely and book things in advance.

Speaking of Poles,I've never met a group of people that find it so hard to keep in touch. The mentality is outta sight,outta mind. Some great people that I'd known for 7 plus years never or rarely email or skype. They all seem too busy trying to make ends meet to be sociable to their old foreign friends.